The present invention relates to a new and distinctive millet cultivar, designated GG102. The term “millet” is applied to various grassy crops whose seeds are harvested for human food or animal feed. Compared to other cereal grains, millets are generally suited to less fertile soils and poorer growing conditions, such as intense heat and low rainfall and require shorter growing seasons.
The earliest recorded document about millet reports that it was a “holy plant” in China around 2800 BC. As an ancient staple of India, Egypt, and North Africa, millet was once dominant commodity; as wheat is today.
Millet is generally considered a minor crop in the U.S. because it has lost a great deal of importance as a cereal crop in favor of other cereal crops such as wheat and rice. However, millet is becoming more important in the U.S. due to its advantages as a rotational or cover crop as well as its use in the hunting industry when planted to attract wild foul, for example ducks and geese.
Millet prefers hot summers and is very drought-resistant once established, making it a great grain plant for most of North America, including the desert states. It will not thrive in the cool wet summers of the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, or Northeastern Maine and Canada. In regions where summers are potentially cool and wet, millet should be planted in a sunny, well-protected location.
Millet can be grown as a sole crop, mixed crop or as an intercrop. Under traditional cropping systems, millets are largely grown as a component of mixed or intercropping patterns than as a sole crop. This is mainly because of the numerous advantages associated with the intercropping/mixed cropping systems.
Millets include five genera, Panicum, Setaria, Echinochloa, Pennisetum, and Paspalum, all of the tribe Paniceae; one genus, Eleusine, in the tribe Chlorideae; and one genus, Eragrostis, in the tribe Festuceae. The most important cultivated species of millet are foxtail (Setaria italica), pearl or cattail millet (Pennisetum glaucum), proso (Panicum miliaceum), Japanese barnyard millet (Echinochola crusgalli), finger millet (Eleusine coracana), browntop millet (Panicum ramosum), koda or ditch millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum), and teff millet (Eragrostis tef).
The present invention relates to Echinochola crusgalli, commonly know as Japanese Millet but also called barnyard millet or billion dollar grass. Japanese millet is grown principally as a forage grass. Japanese millet is usually grown as a late-season green feed in temperate climates with humid or sub-humid conditions. It makes the most rapid growth of all millets under favorable weather conditions, ordinarily producing ripe grain in 45 days after seeding. The ordinary growth habit of this annual grass is an erect plant 2–4 ft tall with a panicle inflorescence made up of 5–15 sessile erect branches. Spiklets are ordinarily brownish to purple and are borne on one side of each branch. Seeds are slightly longer than wide and are larger than those of barnyardgrass. Japanese millet makes its best growth on good soils. It is not ordinarily subject to major fungal diseases; it is susceptible to several species of head smuts.
Millets are generally grown on less fertile soils. All millets respond to nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers, but there are only broad guidelines on fertility practices for millets. Nitrogen requirements for heavy forage production and heavy grazing will likely be double those required for hay or seed crops. Phosphorus requirements will also be higher than those for hay or seed crops. Nutrient requirements include potassium, sulfur, calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, boron, manganese, zinc, molybdenum, and chlorine. One or more of these nutrients may be limiting in the less fertile soils used by millet producers.
There are numerous steps in the development of any novel, desirable plant germplasm. Plant breeding begins with the analysis and definition of problems and weaknesses of the current germplasm, the establishment of program goals, and the definition of specific breeding objectives. The next step is selection of germplasm that possess the traits to meet the program goals. The goal is to combine in a single variety an improved combination of desirable traits from the parental germplasm. These important traits may include higher seed yield, resistance to diseases and insects, better stems and roots, tolerance to low temperatures, and better agronomic characteristics on grain quality.
Choice of breeding or selection methods depends on the mode of plant reproduction, the heritability of the trait(s) being improved, and the type of cultivar used commercially (e.g., F1 hybrid cultivar, pureline cultivar, etc.). For highly heritable traits, a choice of superior individual plants evaluated at a single location will be effective, whereas for traits with low heritability, selection should be based on mean values obtained from replicated evaluations of families of related plants. Popular selection methods commonly include pedigree selection, modified pedigree selection, mass selection, and recurrent selection, or a combination of these methods.
The complexity of inheritance influences choice of the breeding method. Various recurrent selection techniques were used to improve quantitatively inherited traits controlled by numerous genes. The use of recurrent selection in self-pollinating crops depends on the ease of pollination, the frequency of successful hybrids from each pollination, and the number of hybrid offspring from each successful cross.
Each breeding program should include a periodic, objective evaluation of the efficiency of the breeding procedure. Evaluation criteria vary depending on the goal and objectives, overall value of the advanced breeding lines, and number of successful cultivars produced per unit of input.
Promising advanced breeding lines are tested and compared to appropriate standards in environments representative of the target area. The best lines are candidates for new commercial cultivars; those still deficient in a few traits may be used as parents to produce new populations for further selection.
Development of new cultivars is a time-consuming process that requires precise forward planning, efficient use of resources, and a minimum of changes in direction.
One method of identifying a superior plant is to observe its performance relative to other cultivars. If a single observation is inconclusive, replicated observations provide a better estimate of its genetic worth.
The goal of plant breeding is to develop new, unique and superior millet cultivars and hybrids. The breeder initially selects and crosses two or more parental lines, followed by self-pollination and selection, producing many new genetic combinations. The breeder has no direct control at the cellular level; therefore, two breeders will not develop the same line, or even very similar lines, having the exact same traits.
The cultivars which are developed are unpredictable. This unpredictability is because the breeder's selection occurs in unique environments, with no control at the DNA level (using conventional breeding procedures), and with millions of different possible genetic combinations being generated. A breeder of ordinary skill in the art cannot predict the final resulting lines he develops, except possibly in a very gross and general fashion. The same breeder cannot produce the same cultivar twice by using the exact same original parents and the same selection techniques. This unpredictability results in the expenditure of large amounts of research monies to develop superior new millet cultivars.
Pedigree breeding is used commonly for the improvement of self-pollinating crops. Two parents which possess favorable, complementary traits are crossed to produce an F1. An F2 population is produced by selfing one or several F1's. Selection of the best individuals may begin in the F2 population; then, beginning in the F3, the best individuals in the best families are selected. Replicated testing of families can begin in the F4 generation to improve the effectiveness of selection for traits with low heritability. At an advanced stage of inbreeding (i.e., F6 and F7), the best lines or mixtures of phenotypically similar lines are tested for potential release as new cultivars.
Mass and recurrent selections can be used to improve populations of either self- or cross-pollinating crops. A genetically variable population of heterozygous individuals is either identified or created by intercrossing several different parents. The best plants are selected based on individual superiority, outstanding progeny, or excellent combining ability. The selected plants are intercrossed to produce a new population in which further cycles of selection are continued.
In a multiple-seed procedure, millet breeders commonly harvest one or more seeds from each plant in a population and thresh them together to form a bulk. Part of the bulk is used to plant the next generation and part is put in reserve. The procedure has been referred to as modified single-seed descent or the pod-bulk technique.
The multiple-seed procedure has been used to save labor at harvest. It is considerably faster to thresh panicles with a machine than to remove one seed from each by hand for the single-seed procedure. The multiple-seed procedure also makes it possible to plant the same number of seeds of a population each generation of inbreeding. Enough seeds are harvested to make up for those plants that did not germinate or produce seed.
Proper testing should detect any major faults and establish the level of superiority or improvement over current cultivars. In addition to showing superior performance, there must be a demand for a new cultivar that is compatible with industry standards or which creates a new market. The introduction of a new cultivar will incur additional costs to the seed producer, the grower, processor and consumer; for special advertising and marketing, altered seed and commercial production practices, and new product utilization. The testing preceding release of a new cultivar should take into consideration research and development costs as well as technical superiority of the final cultivar. For seed-propagated cultivars, it must be feasible to produce seed easily and economically.
Despite the importance of millets, production has remained low. Low yields of millets are generally attributed to lack of high yielding hybrids and to the fact that these crops are largely grown as rainfed crops.